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Joe Kent, who resigned Tuesday as Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle director, has been a stalwart Trump supporter, backing him since his 2016 marketing campaign, by means of his 2020 election defeat, the Jan. 6 riots, in addition to throughout his personal conservative media advocacy and two failed congressional bids.
However that ended with Mr. Trump’s battle in Iran and his alliance with Israel towards the Islamic clerics who led the Tehran authorities. In a resignation letter he posted on X, Kent mentioned Tuesday that Iran “posed no imminent risk to our nation,” and he asserted that “we began this battle because of stress from Israel and its highly effective American foyer.”
Kent, 45, is a particular forces fight veteran with ties to right-wing extremists and was considered as a Trump loyalist. His causes for resigning contradicted the president’s assertion that Iran was poised to assault the U.S.
On Feb. 28, in a video saying the primary airstrikes, Mr. Trump mentioned his goal was “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
“Its menacing actions instantly endanger the US, our troops, our bases abroad, and our allies all through the world,” Mr. Trump mentioned of Iran.
Kent, in his resignation letter to Mr. Trump advised the president had been misled and that “high-ranking Israeli officers and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation marketing campaign … to encourage a battle with Iran.” GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in a put up on X attacked the “virulent anti-Semitism of his resignation letter” and mentioned it was clear Kent was incapable of upholding a pledge he’d made to senators “to steer with integrity and accountability.”
An administration official instructed CBS Information that Kent was not concerned on briefings on Iran.
Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose workplace oversaw Kent’s work, mentioned it was as much as Mr. Trump to resolve whether or not Iran posed a risk to the U.S.
“After fastidiously reviewing all the knowledge earlier than him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent risk and he took motion based mostly on that conclusion,” she wrote in a social media put up Tuesday.
Affiliation with far-right figures, conspiracy theories
In his Senate affirmation hearings, Kent acknowledged that in one in every of his two failed congressional campaigns, a political guide arrange a name joined by right-wing white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes has mentioned that Jews are holding the U.S. “hostage” and as soon as proclaimed that “Hitler was superior; Hitler was proper.”
When he ran for a Home seat in 2022, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right navy group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He additionally labored carefully with Joey Gibson, the founding father of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted assist from a wide range of far-right figures.
Kent has additionally endorsed a lot of conspiracy theories and made a lot of controversial claims. He is claimed the COVID vaccine wasn’t a vaccine, however slightly, “an experimental gene remedy” and has additionally mentioned Anthony Fauci, the previous director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments, ought to face homicide fees. Kent additionally mentioned he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump and has referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as “political prisoners.”
He echoed a conspiracy concept that federal brokers had one way or the other instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. He mentioned Biden ought to be impeached and known as for an investigation into the 2020 election. Kent known as for the defunding of the FBI after its search on the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence for labeled paperwork.
Kent later disavowed a few of his right-wing ties and mentioned he rejected all “racism and bigotry.” Throughout his Senate hearings, he declined to distance himself from his 2020 election denialism.
He was confirmed in July on a 52-44 Senate vote that fell carefully alongside celebration traces. Each Democrat opposed his nomination, citing his right-wing ties. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was the one Republican to oppose Kent’s affirmation.
Because the director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, Kent led an intelligence company that was created after the 9/11 assaults to research and detect terrorist threats. Amongst different duties, the company maintains the U.S. authorities’s listing of identified and suspected terrorists.
Kent’s navy background
Earlier than his affirmation, Kent labored as Gabbard’s chief of workers. He is a retired Inexperienced Beret who deployed to 11 fight missions, principally in Iraq, throughout a 20-year profession within the Military.
After his retirement in 2018, he turned a paramilitary officer with the CIA and served as a counterterrorism adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection marketing campaign. He was a daily on conservative cable exhibits and podcasts earlier than and through his 2022 and 2024 congressional bids.
Kent’s first spouse, Shannon Kent, was a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 whereas combating the Islamic State group in Syria. She was fluent in seven languages and paved the best way for the elevated inclusion of ladies in Particular Operations Forces. She served a number of excursions in Iraq and took part in a lot of particular operations that resulted within the seize of a whole bunch of enemy insurgents, based on the Navy.
After his spouse’s demise, Kent spoke out towards U.S. intervention around the globe. “That’s the reason I’ve a skepticism of our federal authorities,” he mentioned, including that Shannon had died as a result of “Republicans and Democrats persistently lied to the American folks to maintain us engaged in wars overseas.”
Through the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Kent lambasted the protection trade and “everlasting ruling class” in Washington. He advised some proponents of international nation constructing have been naïve and others have been pushed by revenue motives.
“It speaks to our hubris,” Kent instructed reporters whereas campaigning for Congress. “For us to not have realized from all this simply exhibits that there are folks getting cash and making their careers on the different finish of it. They have been doing it on the backs and lifeless our bodies of U.S. troopers.”
Mr. Trump praised Kent when he nominated him in February 2025, saying in a social media put up that Kent “will assist us preserve America protected by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists across the World, to the cartels in our yard.”
In Senate affirmation hearings, Kent centered on cartels, slightly than Center East
However at his Senate affirmation hearings, Kent centered closely on Latin American drug cartels, slightly than the Center East.
“President Trump is dedicated to figuring out these cartels and these violent gang members and ensuring that we find them and that we get them out of our nation,” Kent instructed the Senate Intelligence Committee.
His nomination confronted some scrutiny when emails emerged displaying that whereas he was Gabbard’s chief of workers, he had pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend an evaluation of hyperlinks between the Venezuelan authorities and the legal gang, Tren de Aragua. Within the emails, Kent pressed the analysts to align the evaluation extra carefully with Trump administration insurance policies and to incorporate references that criticized Biden-era immigration packages. Kent’s revisions supported Mr. Trump’s assertions that Tren de Aragua members could possibly be eliminated underneath the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
Sign chat about strikes on Houthis
Throughout his affirmation listening to, Democratic senators grilled Kent about his participation in a bunch chat on Sign utilized by Mr. Trump’s nationwide safety crew to debate delicate navy plans.
The Sign chat, which inadvertently included the editor in chief of The Atlantic journal, confirmed Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth offered details about the timing of warplane launches and airstrikes towards Houthis in Yemen in March 2025. The disclosure of usually labeled info got here earlier than the women and men flying these assaults have been airborne.
It turned an embarrassing flashpoint for the administration, although prime Trump administration officers denied labeled info was divulged and Hegseth, Kent and others confronted no penalties from the president.
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